WWE SmackDown Live Results 9th January 2018, Latest SmackDown Live winners and video highlights

Last night, WWE gave the fans the first great episode of Raw for the new year. It was explosive from the start to finish and the fans didn't have much to complain about it. The focus now shifted to SmackDown and sadly for the blue brand, tonight's show, in particular, looked really weak on paper.

Same old matches and predictable booking looked hinder the overall viewing experience and WWE was tasked with doing otherwise. So were they successful or did Raw take home the honors this time around?

Find out in this week's results and video highlights:

The handicap syndrome

AJ Styles opened this week's show in an interview with Renee Young. She asked him about his handicap title defense and whether Daniel Bryan's announcement was fair. AJ said that that he's human and a handicap match may be uncalled for.

He said there's a chance he could lose his title but there's also the possibility that he could beat the hell out of the Canadian besties. AJ added that his strategy was to land the finishing blow asap because the longer the match went on the lesser chances he'd have to win.

AJ refused to point fingers and go with the public opinion that Daniel Bryan was playing favorites.. He made it clear that he didn't want to lose his title now and vowed to beat KO and Sami on the same night. The Prizefigher's music hit.

Owens told the fans to applaud the remorseful AJ Styles. KO said that styles would need a miracle to retain his title at the Rumble. Zayn yepped along like a true best friend.

The only man missing from the party, Shane McMahon's music hit, who came out and expressed his confusion over the booked handicap title match and the reason behind it all.

He, in turn, booked a handicap match for the night in which Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles and Randy Orton would team up to take on KO and Zayn.